Laughing Shadow
by shadowmaster62
Summary: 10 years after Ed's disappearance, Wrath has regained his alchemy and found a place among those who once hunted him, but between annoying superiors, stupid subordinates, and dealing with his mother, life is far from easy.
1. The Flame Alchemist's Worst Nightmare

Author's Notes:

Here we have me expanding outward from my niche in the Naruto fandom to tackle a FMA continuation. Why? Because I had an idea, and because considering all the characters in Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed is overused.

I don't mean to say he's a bad character, in fact I quite like him, but still, with the throng of completely Ed-centric fics out there, I figure a little variation is in order.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The train rumbled gently beneath the young girls feet as she examined the passenger across the aisle, "Mommy," She asked, "why is that boy missing his arm and leg?"

Her mother grabbed her arm, "Dear! You can't ask people things like that, it's rude!"

"Don't worry, miss, its fine," the boy smiled brightly at them, "I don't mind, even if she wants to come over and see"

The little girls eyes widened to saucers, "Oh please, mommy! Can I? Can I?"

The mother looked nervously across the hall, "I suppose, but don't bother the boy"

Needing no further prodding, she bounced out of her seat and across the hall into the opposite compartment, pulling herself up onto the bench next to the appendage deprived boy, "Wow... they're really not there. How come you don't have a fakey arm?"

"I don't need one, or a 'fakey' leg for that matter, because I have friends who help me"

"Really?"

The boy nodded and pointed to two boxes on the other seat in the compartment, "See, in there"

Looking very closely, she suddenly saw movement inside one of the boxes and yelped, "Theres some alive in there!"

"I told you, my friends. Do you want to meet one of them?"

"Ooh, yes!"

"Now you have to be quiet, because I'm not supposed to let them out in here," saying that, the boy flicked open a latch and the side of a box swung open.

"It's a metal puppy!"

"_Shhh! _Yes, his name is Nacht_"_

The dog jumped carefully out of it's box and padded over to the girl, pushing it's steel nose into her hand.

"He's so cute... but how is he metal? I've never seen a metal puppy before"

"My friends are special, little girl, and there aren't anymore like them in the whole world"

"Really?"

"Really"

"Can you let the other one out? It must be lonely in its box"

"Oh no, Tag wouldn't like it in the train, it's too small. I'll let him out once we're outside"

"You're nice! Do you want to be my friend? I'm Mary!"

The boy shook her small hand, "I'm Wrath"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Lt. Jay Miller rushed through central headquarters, clutching a sheet of paper like his life depended on it. Arriving at the correct door, he knocked furiously until a voice bellowed from within.

"WHAT!"

The Lieutenant pushed the door slightly ajar and leaned in, "General Mustang Sir, I have a letter for you. It's marked 'urgent' but appears to have gotten lost in the mail and so has arrived three days late"

"Well then, read it to me"

"Are you sure, Sir? It's addressed to you and it _is _a top priority urgent message. It wouldn't be proper for me to"

"READ IT"

"Y...Yes sir..."

(Ahem)

"_Dear Flaming Alchemist,_

_I don't want to waste any of your precious time, so I'll just say that I will be in central four days after the mailing of this letter. Looking forward to seeing you,_

_N. A."_

With a groan, Roy swept a pile of papers off his desk in annoyance and watched them slowly flutter to the ground, "Let me guess, it was mailed four days ago"

The Lieutenant watched the General tentatively, "Yes, but... Are you okay, sir?"

"I will be, but please inform my wife that I won't be joining her for lunch"

"Shall I give her a reason, sir?"

"If I know him, and I do, the Nightmare Alchemist will be arriving in just under an hour on the express train from Xenotime. I'm going to go meet him"

"Yes, Sir! I'll get right to it"

Watching his door swing closed, General Mustang stood and gathered up his things, "Well, the day has certainly become more interesting"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Running all the way to the other end of the building, Miller arrived at the door of Major General Hawkeye, "Excuse me, but I have a message from General Mustang"

"Come"

He pushed the door open, "General Mustang says he unfortunately won't be able to join you for lunch because the Nightmare Alchemist is arriving on the express train and the General is going to meet him"

Hawkeye looked up from her paperwork absentmindedly, "Lieutenant, I want you to get two officers, I don't care who, and escort him to the station. We can't have a General walking around on his own"

Fighting the urge to moan at the thought of running back to the other end of the building _again_, Miller saluted, "Yes, Sir!"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The train let out a puff of steam as it pulled into the station and it slowly came to a stop.

"Mary!" Her mother called, "we have to get off the train now"

The girl looked hesitant about leaving, but her new friend urged her off the seat, "You need to go when your mother calls, or she'll be upset with you"

"But I wanna stay with Wrath-kun"

Wrath looked out the window at the crowds waiting outside the train, "How about you come visit me? I'll be staying in the central barracks; can you remember that?"

"Central barracks... I don't know where that is, but I'll come visit!"

Sensing her mother might come any minute and drag her away, Mary ran quickly back into the hall, not noticing the door being closed behind her.

Now again alone in his compartment, Wrath slid the curtain of his window closed and flipped open the latches on his two boxes, "Sorry you two, but it looks like general pain-in-the-ass is already waiting for us, so you'll have to go back to work earlier than I thought"

Mary's mother walked as her daughter talked constantly about her new friend, but something suddenly occurred to her, "Dear, did you see a wheelchair in his room?"

"No, mommy, but his friends help him"

"His friends..." The mother looked back at the boys room and jumped as she saw a red flash of light under the door.

Wrath sat in his compartment, waiting until he was sure that everyone was off the train, then pushed his door open again and stood up, his automail glinting as he made his way off the train.

The attendant would later go in to clean up, only to be perplexed by two apparently empty animal boxes.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Lt. Miller shifted nervously from foot to foot as people filed off the train past them, "I've never met the Nightmare Alchemist, so how should I act? What rank does he hold?"

Mustang yawned , "Oh, he's just a Major, but he also holds an all encompassing scorn for military procedure, so he won't salute you, and probably won't even salute me"

"B...But why isn't he disciplined? That kind of conduct is..."

"Oi!" A small voice interrupted, "if it isn't the Flaming Alchemist. You didn't need to come all the way down here just to see me"

"For the last time, I'm the _Flame _Alchemist"

"Uh-huh, whatever you say"

"Wrath, I'm not in the mood to deal with your attitude today"

"Then why did you come down to meet me? I would think you would have all kinds of things to do here in central: do your hair, go shopping, check out the new recruits"

"I'm NOT gay"

"Suuuuuuure you're not"

"It's only been thirty seconds and I'm already remembering why I don't like you around"

"Whatever you say, oh flaming one"

The Lieutenant and two enlisted men he had brought along watched with a kind of distant shock as their General continued to argue with a boy who looked like he was maybe ten, but they found themselves becoming unsettled when the boy turned his gaze on them.

"I'm going to take a random guess and say that you three were ordered to watch this clown here by his loving wife? I'll tell you a little secret, she doesn't order an escort to watch her husband because she's worried about what might happen to him, she does it because she's worried about what he might do"

"Excuse me, but I'M RIGHT HERE, so stop talking about me! Keep this up, Wrath, and I'll have your watch taken away!"

"Oh NO! Not my watch! Anything... anything but that"

"Lt. Miller, bring the car around please, and as for you, Nightmare, your sarcasm is not appreciated"

Miller rushed off and the two alchemists made their way towards the terminal exit, followed by the escorts.

"Shall I make a list of all the things I don't appreciate about you? I could alphabetize it and divide it into volumes for easy reading"

Mustang found himself wishing he hadn't taught the boy the fine art of witticism, as he now found himself victim of his own teachings, "If we could be serious for a moment, I did in fact have a reason for coming down to greet you personally beyond how much I enjoy your conversational skill. I have a mission that I've been saving for you, and since you've decided to come back early, I'll want you to start on it soon, maybe as early as tommorow"

"Joy. What is it this time, infiltrating a daycare? Stopping an explosive kindergarten crime wave?"

"Come on, Wrath, how often have you been discriminated against based on your appearance?"

"Do you remember the incident with Bobo the clown?"

"Fine, _appart _from the incident with Bobo the clown"

"I think that one incident on it's own is reason enough for me to be suspicious"

"Well, this is nothing at all like that. But the mission will come later, how are Nacht and Tag?"

Wrath ignored the rather ungraceful subject change, "Oh, their fine. Tag hasn't had a chance to stretch his wings recently because I've been underground, but I plan to remedy that as soon as I get settled in"

Just then, they exited the terminal and found a car waiting for them. Wrath stepped in first, sliding across the seat to make room for the General. The ride was silent, since the homunculus had always had an unconscious dislike of cars, and avoided them whenever possible. Normally, Roy would have taken the opportunity to make a snide comment, and his silence hinted to Wrath that this mission may be more important than he had originally assumed.

They arrived at Central headquarters shortly thereafter, and Wrath looked up at the building in distaste. He had little tolerance for bureaucracy and those who created it, and despite his attitude, gave Mustang far more respect than he allowed for most generals.

It was a mystery and source of great gossip among the regular soldiers why he was allowed to remain in the military at all.

Wrath waited impatiently until Mustang had opened the door, then fought the urge to simply shove the General out the door, not wanting to spend another moment in the engine powered box of steel.

When he finally did make it outside, he inhaled and dissected the smells of the Central headquarters, "Oil... and the cleaning supplies used to try and clean up oil, with just the slightest hint of burnt metal. An oil truck crashed here recently"

"Two days ago," Roy gestured for Miller to go park the car, "but thats not important. What _is _important is that you wear your uniform, at least while you're here"

"I've told you people before, I'm not going to wear that stupid blue uniform. Just because I'm a state alchemist doesn't mean I want everybody, or _anybody_ for that matter, to know I am"

"You think black spandex is better? And don't look at me all innocently, cause I know your wearing black spandex under your street clothes"

"I'll make you a deal: I'll wear a state alchemist uniform, but you have to wear black spandex"

"Seven years ago, I might have agreed, but I doubt my wife or my superiors would appreciate my walking around in a skintight black bodysuit"

"I don't know... I think Hawkeye would like it, she just wouldn't want anyone else to see you in it"

"You know, you get progressively creepier every year"

"That's an unfortunate side effect of not aging. I walked up to this hot girl the other day, and she just patted me on the head and said I was cute. The only friends I have are little kids"

"But you like little kids"

"Still, I'd like, just once, to have a girlfriend or something"

The General smirked, "You and Havoc both"

"He got rejected again? That makes it what, thirty six straight rejections?"

"Thirty nine, actually. He's been busy in the past few weeks"

Wrath observed where he was being led, "Has your office been moved again?"

"Who said we were going to my office?"

"Don't answer a question with another question, and you never said we were going to your office, but I assumed we were because I thought you'd want me to get my mission briefing"

"We will soon enough, but we have a small side trip to make"

Speaking confidently, the General turned into the section of the compound reserved for training potential state alchemists. They swerved through the crowds of students and mostly ignored the salutes of the few who recognized them, arriving at a large set of double doors, which Mustang flung open, immediately attracting the attention of the hundred or so students within, as well as their teacher.

"Ah! General Mustang, no doubt here to witness my great teaching technique, passed down through the generations..." Alex Louis Armstrong was silent as he noticed his other visitor, and the vicious scar that marred his otherwise perfect bald head started to tingle.

"Your starting the unit on combat tactics right now, if I'm not mistaken, Major" Roy commented lightly, "and I thought you and the Nightmare here might like to do a live demonstration to kick things off"

Regaining his composure, Armstrong struck pose #35, "A most excellent idea, General. Nothing demonstrates combat tactics as well as a demonstration!"

Roy clapped his hands together, "Alright, students, please make your way to testing field three"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Wrath and Armstrong faced each other across the open field, both relishing the tension. With such an audience the stakes would be even higher today than usual.

The two Majors had something of a history, and although any animosity between them had long since cooled, a great rivalry remained. The students observing fidgeted nervously, watching how the alchemists both seemed to tighten; Armstrong losing his usual sparkle and tensing his muscles while the comparatively diminutive Nightmare Alchemist (who most of them were seeing in person for the first time) seemed to coil up like a spring.

For all the anticipation in the air, Mustang smiled to himself and watched them stare each other down, a sense of nostalgia washing over him.

/-/-/-/-/8 years Earlier/-/-/-/-/

Rain poured from the sky, and those few people unfortunate to be outside were rushing to somewhere warm and dry as fast as possible.

Sergeant Frank J. Kruger stood unmoving, observing movement in an alley across the street. He had seen a young couple run into the alley, most likely hoping to use it as a shortcut. The Sergeant knew it to be a dead end, and yet no one had emerged after almost five minutes.

He advanced slowly towards the entrance when a small form darted out of the alley and ran in the other direction. The Sergeant dashed after the quickly vanishing shape, "Hey you! Stop!"

The shape showed no sign of slowing, so Kruger picked up the pace, "Stop or I'll be forced to shoot!"

The Sergeant had been bluffing about the shooting thing and was closing on his suspect, but the rain obscured his view, making it impossible to discern any features apart from the fact the the suspect was small. He was almost close enough for a tackle, when the suspect suddenly jumped almost ten feet straight into the air and landed on the nearest roof.

Kruger looked up with a sense of disbelief, but suddenly heard a yell as the suspect fell back down off the roof, collided with the high momentum Sergeant and bounced to the ground. He attempted to scramble off again, but was grabbed firmly by the shoulder.

It was still pouring, so the Sergeant dragged his prisoner back to the alley, where an only slightly worse for wear young man was helping his girlfriend walk. The girl balked when she saw Kruger and the child, "That's the punk who stole my necklace!"

Reaching down, the Sergeant pried open the boy's hand, revealing a golden necklace. The woman reached forward and snatched it back, turning disgustedly and hobbling away.

"So then, little man, where do you live? I could take you to jail or to your parents house. You decide"

His long hair hanging in his face like seaweed, the boy looked up and snarled. Envy had told him that if the military found out who he was he would be experimented on, and of all the things his brother had said, it was one of the few he still believed to be true.

This meant that he would have to avoid drawing attention to himself, which meant he had to answer the man. A military prison would be out of the question, so as much as he hated it, he had only one choice.

Two days later, Izumi Curtis heard a knock on her door.

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Translation and Pronunciation:

From German

Tag (Tah-g) – Day

Nacht (Nah-kt) - Night

Continuity Note: Most of this story takes place ten or so years after the end of the anime, but the next few chapters will deal with the time in between.


	2. A Not So Brief History Part 1

Annoyed at the repeated knocking, Izumi wiped her hands on a dish rag and left Alphonse to his enthusiastic attempt at making macaroni.

Unfortunately, the young man was far more skilled at Alchemy than he was at cooking, so she was somewhat irate as she went to open the door. Sensing the imminent danger, Wrath took a step backwards as the door swung open violently, sending the young officer assigned to escort him flying off to one side.

Izumi tried to discern what was going on as Wrath stared at the ground, pointedly avoiding looking at her. The officer pushed himself to his feet slowly, "I apologize for the interruption, but is this your son? He gave his name as being a one 'Wrath Curtis' and listed this address as his home when he was apprehended for thievery."

The boy continued to avoid her gaze, but Izumi took hold of his chin and forced him to look at her, the heavy silence hanging in the air causing no small amount of discomfort for the soldier, "Excuse me, but _is _he your son, Mrs. Curtis?"

Izumi broke her gaze away from the homuculus, "Yes, this is my son. Thank you for bringing him."

Noticeably relieved, the officer made a hasty retreat, leaving Wrath and Izumi standing facing each other even as Al started to yell in the background and the smoke alarm blared happily.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Wrath looked at his plate of macaroni cautiously, poking at the black flecked noodles with his fork, "Are you sure this is edible?"

Alphonse nodded enthusiastically, "Oh yes, I had to use a little alchemy, but everything there was originally food!"

The homuculus picked up some on his fork, "Originally?"

He was forcing his hand to move towards his mouth when Izumi entered the room with two mugs of steaming unidentifiable liquid, "Hey Al, we need to have a little chat, so how about you go outside and practice your alchemy for a little bit"

The blond pouted, "But my macaroni..."

"If you practice a lot, I'll teach you a new kind of alchemy trick..."

A breeze washed through the room as Al bolted out the door as fast as his small legs could carry him.

Izumi watched the door close and set down a mug in front of Wrath, "There's nothing he won't do to learn a new alchemy trick."

Wrath was silent.

"I saw you talking to Al a moment ago, so why are you all introverted now?"

"Leave me alone."

Izumi sipped her drink, "If you think you can just show up on my doorstep and then think I'll tolerate you being rude, your in for a nasty surprise."

"I'm here because I had to give them an address or go to jail. I'll be gone tomorrows."

"That's what you think. I took responsibility for you, so you're going to stay here."

Looking dazed for a moment, Wrath ran for the front door, but when he got to the front of the house there was a distinct lack of door. Hating his own weakness, the boy ran in search of a window.

Izumi was still sipping her drink when Wrath eventually slunk back into the room, "You're taking advantage of me, just because I can't use alchemy."

"Yes I am, which is not only my right but my responsibility as a parent."

"You are NOT my mother!"

Izumi's eye's hardened, "So you thought I was lying when I said to that military man I was your parent?"

Wrath clenched his fists, "Why can't everyone just leave me alone!"

She reached forward and grabbed his hand, pulling it to her stomach, "Here's why, right here."

Wrath was taken aback for a moment, but calmed down and hmphed, crossing his arms, "Maybe you can keep me here, but I don't have to do what you say."

"I gave up far too much for your sake to allow you to waste away into nothing just because of your self-pity. You're going to stay here as long as it takes for you to at least learn some basic social skills."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

It was in this way that Wrath first came to live in the Curtis household.

For the first few weeks, the only person he interacted with at all was Al. When he wasn't with the blond boy, he was hiding somewhere in the house, and ate by sneaking into the kitchen late at night.

Izumi had re-alchemized the door long ago, but the homunculus couldn't quite bring himself to leave, a little voice in his head always telling him that he could leave the next day if he really wanted to.

By the end of the first month, the boy had started showing up for the occasional meal, though he ate little and spoke to no one, and by the end of the sixth week, he had begun to help with the occasional chore.

But during his eighth week, something rather unexpected happened.

The day began relatively normally, with Wrath following Al to a rocky beach where the two would practice alchemy. Or rather, Al would practice and Wrath would watch and study the alchemic reactions. On this particular morning they were going to attempt create a ten foot glass statue by alchemizing sand. They had spent over an hour arguing over what it would be a statue of, and had finally decided on a glass fountain.

Al and Wrath drew a alchemy array ten feet in diameter, careful to keep the whole array above the waterline.

The homunculus took a step back and Al placed his hands on the edge of the circle. It was by no means the most complex transformation Al had attempted, but it was on a larger scale and was really two reactions in one. He would have to alchemize the sand into glass and then form the fountain.

Al started the reaction and Wrath felt a strange feeling settle in his stomach, as he always did in the presence of alchemy. The reaction went well at first, the sand rippling and changing to become translucent before slowly raising into the air and taking shape.

Then something went wrong.

Al started to lose control and backed slowly away as the mound of semi-glass convulsed. Both suspected an explosion was pending, and Wrath felt sure that Al was still too close to the quickly degenerating reaction. Acting on instinct, he jumped straight at the writhing mass and, much to Al's horror, drove his arm into it up to his elbow.

To Al it seemed nothing short of a miracle, because the reaction immediately stabilized and within only a few seconds, a perfect glass fountain was formed, "Wrath-kun... how is that possible?"

"I'm not sure, but I'd appreciate a little help here."

Looking closer and seeing that Wrath's left forearm was encased in the glass, the blond boy rushed to scratch a small circle in the glass next to Wrath's arm and free the immobile appendage.

The homuculus flexed his left hand and wiggled his fingers experimentally, "Everything looks to be in working order, you ok, Al?"

There was enthusiastic nodding, "Yes, thanks to you. But how did you do that?"

Wrath examined his hands, "I'm not sure... It just felt natural."

"Natural?"

"Yeah, I didn't even really think about it, I just did it."

Despite being young, Al was a scientist above all else, and Wrath found himself being carefully scrutinized. After a couple minutes of awkwardness, the blond boy started to draw another circle in the sand.

Wrath looked on curiously, "What are you doing?"

_"We _are going to do some experimenting._"_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

As the sun reached it's highest point in the sky, Izumi started to get impatient.

She had made it _absolutely _clear to both boys that they were to be home no later than 11:30 AM, and as it was now approaching noon, she was simmering just short of full blown rage.

Their lunch had gone cold, and although she could easily re-heat it with alchemy, it was the principle of the matter.

Apart from blind devotion and servitude, she really didn't ask much of her students, so the least they could do was show up on time for lunch.

She set off to find them, trying to decide exactly how she was going to inflict sufficient pain on them.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Al placed his hand son the circle, "Ready?"

Across from him, on the other side of the huge array, Wrath did likewise, "Yeah."

"Okay, I'm starting the reaction."

This time, Al knew he wasn't going to be able to control the reaction, and was, in fact, counting on the fact that he wouldn't be able to control it.

Only a few seconds in, he felt the energy spiraling out of control, "Take it, Wrath!"

The homunculus was happy to oblige. Finally being able to alchemize again, even if he needed someone else's help, was the greatest moment of Wrath's life. The energy coursed through his veins and made him feel more alive than ever before.

All the alchemy he had studied with Al had been science, but what he was feeling right then had nothing to do with being scientific. To Wrath, alchemy was a natural as breathing and as instinctual as walking. He reached out his hand and a windstorm spun up as the air was churned by some invisible force. He brought his hand down in a Karate chop and the ground fissured.

He was about to try a third motion when the reaction suddenly stopped and Al collapsed.

Wrath stood perplexed for a moment or two, then ran to check on the Elric boy.

At the entrance to the beach, Izumi was leaning against a light post, _'Even if it was only for a couple seconds... a reaction of that level... he controlled the alchemical energy like it was an extension of his body...'_

She watched as the homuculus lifted a softly snoring Al onto his back and made his way towards towards the house. _'Not Ed... Not Al... Not I or Hoenheim or even Dante could dream of having that level of alchemical affinity. It's downright...' _she shuddered softly, _'inhuman.'_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The more Izumi thought about it, the more sense things seemed to make.

Wrath lacked the internal gate that all humans had, therefore rendering him incapable of using alchemy, but the gate had nothing to do with control, it only provided the energy, so even without it Wrath would be able to control someone else's alchemy. In fact, she knew that the other homuculus had shown alchemy-like powers at times, so they _had _to be able to control it.

The problem earlier had stemmed from the fact that Wrath was inefficient with his alchemy and consumed a lot more energy than Al could produce, rendering the boy unconscious by way of energy drain after just a few seconds.

Al had woken up half an hour later just feeling a little tired, and the boys had gone to play again, leaving Izumi to consider her options. It was one thing to allow Wrath to live with them when he was just a harmless little boy, and quite another when he had the potential to cause widespread destruction.

Her two options were to either try to restrict his power or teach him to control it. She would much rather do the latter, but if Wrath for some reason ever reverted to the semi-insane state he had lived in among the homuculus...

She finally just sighed and decided to give it a try. Even if Wrath did go crazy again some day, a crazy person who can control themselves is better than a sane person who can't.

The next day, Wrath's official training as an alchemist began.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Wrath trained with Al and Izumi for a full year, and in the coarse of that year learned as much as he could about alchemy and it's applications.

It was quickly apparent that Wrath himself was only able to perform simple transmutations, but could control them instinctualy. The best analogy Izumi ever came up with to explain this phenomenon was that of a man-made river.

If you tell a person to dig a new river that doesn't have water in it yet, they can make it with as many twists and turns as they want, but if you have a fast flowing river and want to divert it down another path, you can only divert it in simple ways, and only in a couple directions.

What this boiled down to was that if he was given enough power, Wrath might be able to topple a mountain with his alchemy, but he couldn't fix a radio.

Al, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Mastering even the most complex reactions with relative ease, he lacked the raw power his brother had always wielded so extravagantly.

As time passed, Wrath showed more and more interest in the alchemy of the Ishvarites, which was very similar to his own, and he had resolved to seek out a practitioner of the great art. Unfortunately, there was one more hurdle he would have to overcome, one that Izumi had been considering for quite some time now.

Wrath had become incredibly skilled at taking control of alchemy, but that wouldn't do much good if someone just pulled a gun and shot him. Powerful as his abilities were, they were only good if someone was attacking him with alchemy, and so he had no way to attack first.

In order to solve this problem, Izumi had been using her connections to get all the available material on the various homunculus. The fact that the other homuculus had used abilities similar to alchemy implied that Wrath probably could as well. The only question was: how?

The answer, when she did finally figure it out, seemed in retrospect to be incredibly obvious.

It was the red stone.

Red stone stores within itself a huge amount of power, which alchemists can draw on during reactions. In addition to this, however, is the fact that red stone constantly emanates very small amounts of alchemic energy. The amount is so small that it would be completely ignored by most alchemists, but Izumi was betting that homuculus drew on that power, which might be just enough for them to alchemize their own bodies.

Wrath had never needed to learn to draw on that power, since Ed's arm and leg let him use normal alchemy, and with Dante gone, Izumi would have to teach him even though she herself didn't fully understand it.

The final two months of training were devoted almost exclusively to harnessing the power of Wrath's red stone, a task which the boy detested, even if it was necessary.

As his year of training came to a close, Wrath was all to aware of how little he knew, but he was determined to travel to Ishvar and meet a master of the great art.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The next few years of Wrath's life were spent working among the Ishvar. They weren't particularly trusting after everything they had been put through, and the first user of the art who had seen Wrath had responded by running around and screaming about him being a false human.

Many of the Ishvarites thought being a homuculus was a good enough reason to kill him right then, with no questions asked, but the leader of the tribe had declared that Wrath might prove himself by working as a part of the community.

So thats what he did.

For a long time.

A very long time.

Two and a half years, in fact.

At first he was scorned and even spit on, but he just kept working and ever so slowly, he gained acceptance. Finally, on a blistering summer day, the old tattooed man watched him dig a new well, and approached him near the end of the day.

"Working hard?"

"It's not like I have anything else to do around here."

"A bit piquant today, are we?"

"My automail has sand in it, and I get cranky when my automail has sand in it."

"If you'd like, I could flush it out for you. Come by my tent later tonight."

The man wandered off, and Wrath suddenly looked up at where he had been standing, "I'll be there."

That night, Wrath got his automail cleaned and received his first lesson in the great art.

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For another two years Wrath trained in the great art. He rarely thought about it, but he had lived among the Ishvar longer than with any other group of people. He had gained the respect of the tribe, and had even been allowed to lead a prayer to Ishvara.

The adults never quite managed to accept the great art, or Wrath's unnatural abilities, but the children were fascinated with him. He had learned enough to harness the power of his red stone, and many nights he would be surround by young Ishvarites who wanted to watch him alchemize rock into his hand.

As was the predictable result, one day a young girl claimed she wanted to learn the great art whether or not it went against the teachings, and the older generations were livid until Wrath was given a chance to speak.

That same day, he gathered the whole tribe together with the promise that he was going to tell a story, and when everyone was sitting around him, he began to recite the story of his life, beginning with his mother.

As the Ishvarite's hung on every word, Wrath momentarily pondered whether Izumi might not appreciate being a part of what would almost certainly become an Ishvar legend, but she wasn't likely to ever set foot in this part of the world, so he figured he was okay.

By the time he finished his improvised autobiography, it was long past the time when the children would have normally gone to bed, but no one had spoken up to complain. The brutal life of the homuculus was something completely foreign to a peaceful group like the Ishvar, and Wrath had watched as the people became more and more wide eyed with every passing moment.

Many of them would later tell him that they hadn't even slept that night.

Things were a bit tense for a few weeks after that, but there were no more children interested in alchemy, a fact for which all the clan elders were thankful.

It was as his fifth year in Ishvar drew to a close that Wrath started to consider leaving, but he wasn't entirely sure where he was planning on going. He had mostly lost contact with Izumi, and although he still considered himself on good terms with his mother, he had no particular desire to become a butcher.

Which left the question: What did he want to do?

There weren't many careers in alchemy for someone who was so limited in the transmutations they could do, and he had never known anything but alchemy. When he had been young, he had wanted to escape from civilization, and now that he was getting older, he wanted to return to civilization, but wasn't sure how.

All this, however, would soon become moot, as the decision was about to be taken out of his hands. News started to arrive from other villages and cities that the military was traveling around doing inspections.

It was a relatively simple inspection, just to confirm that health and safety standards were being met everywhere, but Wrath would have to be far, far away before any soldiers arrived.

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Interestingly, the homuculus found that little had changed on the road from Ishvar to Dublith. He used the same roads, took the same trains, and stayed in the same hotels as he had when traveling the opposite way all those years ago. The journey took him the same amount of time, and before he knew it, he was standing at the outskirts of the city.

Making good time by moving along rooftops, Wrath soon landed silently in Izumi's back yard. It was late, but he tested the handle of the door anyway. It was locked, so he melded his hand into the door. Feeling around on the inside, he flicked open the latch and then withdrew his hand. He turned the handle slowly and pushed the door open, taking a step in.

A shape suddenly appeared in the darkness and Wrath looked up as a metal pipe smashed into the door frame two inches above his head.

There was a yelp, and the metal pipe clattered to the floor.

"It's just me, Alphonse. How's your hand?"

"Up until a couple seconds ago, it was doing very well."

"Hows the door frame?"

Al's voice sounded strained, "I'm still mostly concerned with my hand."

"Better your hand than my face."

"It's a good thing you're so short then."

Izumi stormed into the room, "What the hell is going on at 3AM that makes this much noise?"

Wrath sighed, "I was trying to be quiet, but Al tried to smash my face in."

Al flexed his hand, pleased to see it still worked, "I thought he was a robber or something."

"Alright," Izumi said slowly, "Wrath, don't break into the house late at night. Al, don't swing metal pipes when you can't see what you're going to hit. Got it?"

The boys nodded.

"Good. Now Al, go make some hot chocolate. I'm going to take his chance to talk to my son, since he never bothered to visit his mother."

"I wasn't really in a position where I could just leave for a few weeks. Entering into Ishvar society is a long term commitment."

"Excuses!"

"Either way, I learned a lot, and that was my goal."

"It's strange... You still look the same, so it's so unsettling to see you act this mature."

"Enough about me. Tell what's been going on here while I've been gone. Apart from Al growing two feet taller, I mean."

"Well... While we're on the topic of Al, he's been showing quite an interest in miss Rockbell recently"

Faster than seemed possible, Al was back in the room and waving his arms in front of Wrath's face, "Really, master is just joking, isn't that right?"

Izumi crossed her arms, "I don't joke."

Wrath looked at Al's shell shocked face and shook his head, "How about that hot chocolate, huh?"

The Elric eeped and ran back into the kitchen while the homuculus glared at his mother, "You shouldn't tease him so much, he takes everything so seriously."

"Exactly. He could stand to lighten up a bit."

"What say we leave Al alone and get back to what you've been doing these past few years. Letters can only tell so much, you know."


End file.
